Arthur Montejano is a graduate student in the
Kinesiology Department. He has served as
president in his fraternity and also Vice
President of Judicial Affairs at Merced College.
Dalton Runberg / The Collegian

Associated Students, Inc. presidential candidate Arthur Montejano describes himself as a coach and a mentor.

“I like showing people things that they didn’t know were possible for them to do,” Montejano said. “Both my grandparents were known in their community for giving. My parents are educators, so we’ve always helped others. I want to be able to serve and empower students.”

Montejano came to Fresno State four years ago, transferring from Merced College as an undergraduate majoring in history, and is now a student in the kinesiology Master’s program.

Despite having never been involved with ASI, Montejano believes that he is qualified to be next year’s ASI president because of his experience in leadership positions as well as other college experiences.

“More than any other candidate, I can speak to the totality of the student experience,” Montejano said. “I’ve had to work and support myself through college. I was an intercollegiate athlete and I was on the leadership council here at Fresno State, so I understand those pressures and have experience leading students.”

Montejano was also Vice President of Judicial Affairs at Merced College as well as senator for Region Five of the Student Center for California Community Colleges, where he represented ten different colleges in the Central Valley.

“I have experience in just about every facet of student life at Fresno State,” Montejano said. “Not coming from ASI gives me an outsider’s point of view. I can relate to where other students are coming from in terms of what ASI needs to do to make itself more accessible and better at serving students.”

Montejano was also the president of his fraternity, Delta Sigma Phi, during his undergraduate years.

Montejano plans to use this as a blueprint for plans he’d like to implement as ASI president to created more engagement and transparency between ASI and students. “Making connections is essential for buy-in and helping students,” Montejano said. “There needs to be some kind of structured program with follow up.”

The second step would be to hold what Montejano calls “town halls.”

“These town halls would have ASI go to where students are, such as the Free Speech Area, or individual colleges,” Montejano said. “Let’s go to places where they live, study and work to engage in dialogue. That would create more transparency by going to the students.”

The third part of his plan would be to hold a General Assembly. At these assemblies, Montejano would have those involved in ASI host or facilitate workshops where students could go and learn about issues they care about.

Montejano feels that ASI is doing a great job in some areas, such as community involvement, but believes there is a lot of room for improvement.

“ASI needs to work more with organizations on campus and make themselves more available to students,” Montejano said. “My main platform is students empowering students. Students who want to serve and empower students.”